London Rain

Yes, it's winter in London.

The Fourth Plinth

The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square has hosted interesting pieces of art over the years. For the next 100 days (ish...it's been going on for a bit already, not sure exactly how many days are left) someone will get the chance to spend 1 hour on top of the plinth, doing anything they like. A new person gets up there every hour. Tonight, my friend and fellow church leader in Camden, Brandon, got up there for an hour. He gave out little gifts, there was a fishing rod involved, and a make-shift boat. We left before his hour was up - had to put the kids to bed - so I don't really know what the end of the story was, or if there was an end. Check out the One & Other site for more info, as well as live video of what's currently on the plinth. Right now, there's a guy calling out Twister instructions to a bunch of people down below.

Art Show

My daughter is taking an afternoon art class. Her teacher was part of an exhibition last night, and he has had the kids helping him out. Here she is pointing out the area she helped paint.

Anarchists get the boot

We have a friend who tends bar at one of our local pubs. He also happens to be an anarchist. Not the 'smash everything up' kind of anarchist, but actually a well-read, socially conscious anarchist, who sees a need for society to focus on tackling social problems as well as technological ones. He recently was part of a group that took over an abandoned house that was being claimed as the 'primary residence' of a couple of MPs so they could get expense reimbursements for their 'second residence', a nice flat near the river. We went to the court case where the squatters were given 24 hrs notice to leave, and hung out with them while they partied after the decision. They knew they were going to lose, but they had done the job of raising awareness of the abuses of taxpayer money by elected officials.

LockStock Music Festival

Last night the LockStock festival took place in Camden Lock market and surrounding pubs and tea shops. We listened to one of the bands at the outdoor stage.

Austria Retreat

Last week we spoke at a retreat for World Harvest's summer interns in Austria. Our good friends from Philadelphia, the McMullens, were there, and we were really encouraged by them. A few pics of the beautiful scenery.

Climbing

I've been taking Andi with me on my weekly climbing sessions with Dave and Barry (and sometimes Andy). She's been improving each week. This week, she got to the top four times, on two different routes. Very exciting.

Everything's OK

This is Danny. Danny doesn't take himself too seriously, though he has a very serious message:

Everything Is OK
Except that everything is not OK. He rails against Capitalists, bankers, the police, government drug and terrorist policies. He says we just need to love each other. But then he says that everything around us, all the differences, are illusion. So what's the good of love if we're all the same? Kind of self-serving if you ask me. But that's ok, you see, in fact, everything's ok. Because Danny is just having fun. Or maybe not.
His speech is riddled with paradox, irony, sarcasm, and contradiction. At one point, he gets stopped by the police because he appears to be promoting drug use. At another point he grabs the megaphone away from his friend to announce to the crowd that I'm a Presbyterian. His partner and I chat for a while about why Jesus came, and why Christians teach that faith in Jesus is essential for life. It's easy to talk about these serious things, because nobody's taking themselves very seriously...or are we?

Dept of Urban Censorship Strikes Again

On my favorite abandoned building in Camden. You can clearly see the "18" in the red circle next to the door. "This area contains violence, drug use, and bad language" the sign reads.
I'd love to see this place turned into a monastic house where prayer and glassblowing are the order of the day.

Dept Urban Censorship

This 'sign' has been popping up in random places around Camden. It's quite big - maybe a meter wide. There's one on the side of the Dev pub, and one on the empty office building across the street from us. It's a clever bit of graffiti - if that is the right term (it looks like it's just a massive sticker). But what does it all mean?

Learning to Follow Jesus

One of the things I want for my girls is that they learn what it means to follow Jesus by walking along that path with us. We've been handing out small bags to welcome traders to the new market that opened up down the street from our house. It's one small way of bringing Jesus' love to them. The girls were really excited about the whole idea, and insisted on helping put the bags together.

Lemon Cupcakes

Right, so Somer has stopped blogging about food, but that doesn't mean she's stopped baking (nor have I stopped eating). Last night one of our neighbors invited us around for her birthday. These are the cupcakes Somer made. I cannot provide a recipe, but I can tell you that in addition to the lemon gummy candy on top, and the lemony cream-cheese icing, they also had a bit of lemon curd hidden in the middle. I can also tell you that the lemon curd was too sweet for me, so I scooped it out with a spoon.

I like big bumpers...

So says the writing on the back of the Streetcar van. Streetcar is a company that provides car rental services in half-hour increments, with as little as 1 hour advance notice. We've used them since 2006 and have found it very useful to have a car (or in this case a van) available to us on short notice. I've lost count of how many cars they have parked around London - there are 3 vans and about 15 cars within a short walk from our flat. We've used them mostly for trips to Ikea or to pick up stuff for the homeless shelter. But on several occasions we've also helped friends move, as was the case earlier this afternoon. I was taking a when I first noticed the aforementioned quote. Why I decided to take a picture of the van open, instead of with the doors closed so you could actually see the writing on the back, I don't know.

Annoyed at Photoshop Elements

Well, not so much at Elements as at the general slowness of my computer. My version of Elements only runs on OS 9, and as the new Intel Macs don't run OS 9, I have to use my old Powerbook, which is woefully under-powered. I was helping my friend Al with the sign for his new shop, which is a 3x1 meter beast of a file - 400+ Mb. Every time I made a change I had to wait a few minutes for it to render. We played a game of chess in between changes.

Holiday in the Park

This past weekend was the first holiday weekend, meaning the start of summer and an extra day off work. As usual, the weekend started off with some glorious weather to lure us into a false sense of hope that summer was in deed upon us. By Monday, the cloud, cold, and wind had returned. But we made the most of the sunshine, getting to the park on Saturday. Our friend Caro joined us with her dog (empty can of Heineken firmly in his mouth like a chew toy). We walked back past our favorite bakery and took cupcakes back to Caro's boat.

London Marathon

This is woefully late, but we went to Shannon's apartment a couple weeks ago to watch the London Marathon. She lives in Wapping, and the race went right in front of her building. She is also starting an enterprise that involves selling repurposed jewelery. The girls helped her with some of her necklaces.

Excitement at the book table

Yesterday Oli and I went to put our book table up at its regular spot. The area is usually busy since it's right next to the local supermarket. But today, there was more activity than usual.
It seems there had been an attempted robbery on an armored truck just a few minutes before we arrived. Police were still pulling up and taping the area off as we set up our table.
We never did find out if the robbers were caught, but it didn't look like they got very far in their getaway car. It was abandoned about 30 yards down the road, boxed in by a workman's truck.

Spring Flowers

Right, so I love flowers. I know that probably means there's something wrong with me, since one of those Psych tests includes a question about being a florist...but I don't care. The flowers are out in the park, and we're loving it. The last picture, where Andi looks all dramatic, was set up and shot by Jodie.

Sudanese Playboys

Here's a shot from the Sudanese Playboys gig I went to with my friend Emmett. That's his friend Manuel on drums. Not the best picture, I know, but I really enjoyed these guys. Check out their myspace page (follow the link on their name).

God Phone

Found this article this morning, about an artist who set up a mobile phone and voicemail for God. He says he won't listen to the messages, which I think is a shame - I'd love to hear what people say on the message. Maybe that's a bit nosy, I don't know.

London Snow Storm

The biggest snowfall in 18 years has hit London, and we are loving it. It started flurrying off and on yesterday afternoon, and by the evening we had a light dusting. The girls went out to check out the snow on the 55 sign.



We had a few friends over for cake for my birthday last night. Then some of us went to Eclectic Electric night at Inspiral Lounge. On the way, we had a snowball fight in the courtyard by the canal. Oli took a few shots to the face.

It kept on snowing, and by the time the music and poetry finished at Inspiral, there were a couple inches on the ground. We ran into a trader I know from the market, and decided to walk with him up to Primrose Hill. On the way, we picked up a few sledding implements. It was a beautiful scene at the top, and pretty good sledding.



Then this morning we went back out with the girls, and called up one of their friends to meet us at the hill. The best runs had iced up overnight, and were too fast and dangerous for the kids. You can see all the people crowded at the top of the hill - people were snowboarding down, and someone had even built a ski jump - it was mayhem. So we had a snowball fight instead, then headed for a cafe. It's currently 5:30 at night, and still coming down steadily.

Inspiral Lounge

I snapped this random shot at Inspiral Lounge while waiting for a friend. We were meeting for coffee, where we discussed the merits of religion and faith (he's a an atheist, though not one of the ones behind the bus campaign sited below). In the meantime I took a few pictures and played with a new app I have on my phone that makes them look a bit funky. I like the colors in this one, it gives the same cool, calming vibe as the music and light show that was playing that night.

There's Probably No God

I tried to get a picture of the new Atheist/Humanist bus poster campaign promoting their views, but the sun was too low and washed out the words. The sides of the 29 bus route in North London now read: There's probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy life.
The 29 bus route is one of London's most dangerous, with fights, robberies, and the occasional stabbing. I guarantee you the misery of the 29 bus is not caused by its disproportionately large number of god-fearing riders. So sure, go ahead and enjoy life. Just don't try doing it on the 29 bus.

Woolworths Closing

Before Christmas we saw the effects of the economic downturn first hand, with the closing of our local Woolworths. All the 'Woolies' in the UK have now closed. On this particular day, the Socialist Party was demonstrating out front, supposedly in support of Woolworths workers. I think it had more to do with them seizing a deeply felt issue to push their agenda forward, but then again, I'm a bit of a cynic.

Lake District

Over Christmas we got out of the city and went up to the Lake District for a couple nights. We stayed in this little hostel with a great fireplace in the common room, and visited a couple of old abbeys and historic sites. These two were taken at Shap Abbey.